A group of Miami men who plotted to blow up the Sears Tower face federal sentencing on Sept. 7, 2009, despite an admission from federal authorities that the men were so incompetent that the plan had little chance of ever reaching fruition. Here is TIME's list of the top 10 terrorism-plot failures

Radioactive Assassination

By Dan FletcherTuesday, Sept. 08, 2009

AP

Most successful terrorists don't come from a UFO-enthusiast background. The bizarre 1996 plot by three Long Island, New York, men proves why. The trio planned to murder three local politicians by placing the radioactive element radium on everything from their car seats to their toothpaste, in the hopes that they'd "one day" develop a disease from the exposure. "And if that were not successful, other things were contemplated, including the use of firearms," the local district attorney told the New York Times. Authorities uncovered the plot before it could come to fruition; its ringleader, Joseph Ford, was ruled mentally unfit for trial.